The use of biometric techniques to identify and/or authenticate the identity of a user is increasing. Biometric techniques that are promoted for this use include voice, fingerprint, iris, vein pattern and other scans. Currently, the use of fingerprint sensors for capturing a fingerprint has shown to be specifically promising, for example due to its ease of integration with different types of electronic equipment, such as smartphones, watches, tablets, or any other type of electronic devices where personalized user interaction is advantageous.
In the above typical prior art examples of electronic equipment having an integrated fingerprint sensor, the electronic equipment is generally provided with some form of graphical user interface (GUI) for instructing the user on how to start using the functionality provided by means of the fingerprint sensor. For example, the GUI may be specifically adapted to instruct the user on how to enroll a finger for allowing future authentication of the user. However, there also exists electronic equipment that lacks a GUI for providing suitable instructions to the user during the enrollment process. In such a case, the enrollment process as well as the general use of the fingerprint sensor may introduce an undue burden to the user.
As an alternative and as is disclosed in US20080028230, an external device such as a smart card reader may be used for providing messages to guide the user through the enrollment process while using the fingerprint sensor on the smart card. The external device should be kept secure, thereby not allowing a person who comes into unauthorized possession of the smart card to replace the authorized user's biometric data with the unauthorized user's biometric data.
However, even though US20080028230 shows an interesting approach to providing messages to the user during the enrollment process, there seems to be room for further improvement, both from a security and from a usability perspective.